Which gender provides more specific peer feedback? Gender and assessment training’s effects on peer feedback specificity and intrapersonal factors

This study investigated the effects of assessor gender (male vs. female), fictitious assessee gender (male vs. female), and assessment training (with vs. without) on peer feedback specificity (i.e. localisation and focus) and intrapersonal factors (i.e. trust in the self as an assessor and discomfort). This study involved 240 undergraduate psychology students (nMen=120, nWomen=120), with half receiving assessment training and the other half receiving the task instructions. Participants were divided into eight subgroups based on training condition and their self-reported gender to provide peer feedback to three writing samples (poor, average, excellent quality) by fictitious male or female peer assessees in Eduflow. A total of 3017 peer feedback segments were analysed, revealing that trained or untrained male and female assessors were comparable in most peer feedback specificity categories when assessing fictitious male or female assessees. Nonetheless, we also found that female assessors excelled in certain categories of peer feedback specificity, while male assessors also demonstrated competencies in other categories. Results also showed that assessors who received assessment training provided localised peer feedback in all the writing samples. Finally, gender and training did not affect participants’ trust in their abilities and (dis)comfort when providing peer feedback.